I, Lynsey, recently wrote a post for a friend's blog about the issue of consumerism. I thought I'd post it here as well. Here is that article below:

Baby steps are good.....real good.

Its hard to live out all of your food convictions initially off the bat once you begin the journey of eating well and eating locally. Things can quickly become overwhelming. Especially if you are use to driving to your local supermarket for everything that you consume.

I'm still working through it all and trying to find ways to improve for our family. It takes lots of digging and looking into things.....mainly because our government and the food industry have become real good at hiding things and dumbing us down as a culture. We are a society of convenience.

What I have learned the most on this journey so far is that buying from a person takes a little more effort (and money) than running to your local Walmart for your one stop shop. Our family buys produce from a sweet family (we are working on growing our own), coffee down the road, honey from a farm in Montgomery, our dairy, butter, and cheese from a local dairy, wheat from a farm up north, and have meat and eggs from our farm. These are the basics of our diet.

For the rest of the small things, I do have to go to HEB for and will buy organic/local (GO Texan) and Fair Trade if possible, but the majority of our stuff is purchased from people and farmers. I usually buy things in bulk to prevent having to run around too many times.

As long as I'm in the right frame of mind, the effort all of this takes is overshadowed by the notion that my products have faces.

Being in the farming world has opened my eyes a million times over. I realize I'm very blessed to live this life, but also no longer can claim to be naive or ignorant about the food system knowing what I know.

Farmers who sell direct market to their customers have much much higher standards than the USDA or FDA. Our farm believes strongly in accountability and our customers holding us accountable for the way in which we raise our animals.

We get a lot of questions on the safety of our meat and eggs along with the dairy we purchase from. A lot of people want to know is the food we produce "safe" since we aren't technically overseen by a government official (our meat does have to butchered at a USDA inspected facility).

It's just a sad fact that we need fancy labels, catchy phrases that the government is buying up (they purchased the term "Free Range" so small farms can no longer use this unless they pay big bucks), and institutions to tell us things are safe instead of trusting a small farm and the farmer who has put their blood, sweat, tears, passions, and resources into their products. A lot of times, their livelihood depends on the quality and safety of their products so its a big deal to them and something they take seriously.

I hear a lot about the economy and it being so terrible as to instill fear in the lives of many people. The sad thing is that one of the areas that people cut back on first are their food choices. I understand this on one hand....it can be expensive. There is no denying that fact. On the other hand, food is a big deal and major part of your life. What we put into our bodies directly effects us on many levels- spiritually, mentally, and physically.

When you purchase goods and food from people and small farms, you are supporting something with a face and (if locally) fueling money directly back into your local economy which then in turns has a positive result on helping the economy around you. Scaling back and buying processed foods, canned goods, and meat from Walmart made and grown in other countries does not have this effect nor are these things usually good for us to eat. 

There are changes we could all make. I do think people need to know that we have options all around us. We just need to find them since its out of the box.  

To find local farmers all around you visit these sites:

Eat Wild

Local Harvest

Eat Well Guide